I want a return to adventure, not grinding pointless power systems that get replaced after 24 months.
What I want is a return to Azeroth, and a deep dive into what made it so catching for so many of us at the start: having a massive world to get lost in, and the power of choice.
The Power of Choice
I’m not talking about talent trees, to get that out there right out of the gates. We’ve never really had much of a choice even then when it comes to talents, and only because there are the optimal specs and talents, and then the sub-optimal. Really no way around that so long as the game is focused on numbers and not tactical strategy.
When I talk about the power of choice, I mean the real choices in an RPG. Where we go, what we do, how we tackle it. In Classic, you had a wealth of choices to make at every turn: do I stay in this zone or jump to something entirely new? Do I go armor smithing or weapon smithing? Do I grind Bloodsail or Steamwheedle? Do I quest in this part of Stranglethorn, or the other end? Do I get a group and sink my teeth into an epic dungeon, or do I go it alone?
The further along we get with expansions, the list of options get slimmer. Fewer zones, fewer dungeons, fewer reputations, smaller professions, less diversity in abilities and their utility, and almost all of the content has become homogenized.
You really don’t get much of a choice in story anymore, either. You have five zones to play in each expansion, usually, and you have to do them in a specific order. The stories are locked in tight, so much so that you can’t pursue them out of order or it doesn’t make any sense. And even still, look at Shadowlands and BFA: even if you did do the story in order, you still only had part of the picture. It was confusing and stale regardless.
I understand the desire to tell a sprawling storyline that covers multiple expansions and seems never ending, but it has thoroughly slimmed down on what was appealing with WoW in the first place: diversity and accessible stories.
These days we’re stuck following the same characters and stories on and on, many of which don’t click with everyone.
The Massive World
As mentioned above, the number of zones we get each expansion is slim. In years long past this wasn’t exactly a bad thing though, mainly because the zones were jam packed. Questing kept us occupied; we had a reason to go back for dailies and reputations; we had open world PVP elements like the Hellfire Peninsula ruins, the Eastern Plaguelands’ towers, and the Grizzly Hills logging area/harbor which kept us coming back for engaging, naturally occurring content.
It was very easy in the old world to get lost in the massiveness of the world. Everything was spread out. It took time to get from point A to point B and in between those two were a dozen things that could steal your attention.
It felt like a lived in world.
These days, we rush between locations to get our dailies done and then are immediately whisked off to some fun filled RNG weekly loot box grinding that everyone complains about. The zones have become more tightly packed, with small portions of the zone dedicated to specific stories. Every point of interest is highly specialized for one purpose, one story, one function.
Compare that to something like Classic or TBC where you could farm quest items from similar mob types in any number of zones. You could be fighting Orcs or quilboar across an entire zone while completing other quests.
That was a splendid way to foster a sense of a connected, living world.
We just don’t get that anymore.
More and more content is being boxed off in dungeons or scenarios, and it’s largely all we have. Repetitive content in a small world. It reduces the opportunities for collaborative gameplay, and that runs contrary to the spirit of an MMO.
Further Analysis
Hot take: we’ve gone too far away from the root of the game -the racial cultures that are so beloved, and were once the heart of the franchise. The story isn’t about the Orcs or Darkspears anymore, or the Humans and Kaldorei, it’s about the Horde and the Alliance as huge concepts and everything else that defined Warcraft has since taken a back seat.
The only solution I believe will get the game back on course is returning us to Azeroth. We need a revamp of the whole world -one in which we can reconnect with these cultures and their characters separate from the factions. We need to be able to identify with these cultures and groups, and have something to root for that we connect with.
WoW has shifted from tangible stories and thrown itself at these massive, abstract questions that the developers entirely refuse to answer in any meaningful way. If you think of it like a camera, we’ve been pulling further and further away from the immediacy of a scene; we get this broad view of everything on a macro scale which is awe striking, but lacks the heart and emotion that would make it compelling.
Example: instead of analyzing the core of the conflict between the Horde and Alliance post MoP Siege of Orgrimmar, we immediately dove into a new conflict that’s devoid of any meaningful character development, largely because it’s all overshadowed by the sudden emergence of a third party entity that steals the attention.
Same thing with Legion.
And then again with the worst offender of all: BFA.
We had another great opportunity to connect with the races of Azeroth after the SECOND Siege of Orgrimmar, but again, any chance at examining the cultural impact of the events of BFA are thrown aside so we can face another huge cosmic level entity. And zero in on one character that many people are fatigued with.
There isn’t anything compelling or relatable in that anymore. Blizzard has torn down everything that defined Warcraft at its heart, and exclusively pursues shock and awe events that get attention for a week and are then forgotten.
The Direction I'd Suggest
Return to Azeroth. Allow us to explore the whole world ( all of the continents ) and reconnect with the world and its people. Yes, this means a world revamp.
Present us with:
1. naturally occurring pvp opportunities (see: Hellfire Peninsula, Eastern Plaguelands, Alterac Valley/Ashran, etc), not forced or game-ified events (see: Nazjatar);
2. professions that have depth and encourage players to make decisions about their path going forward;
3. a diverse slate of stories that don’t have to build into one massive story;
4. ask important and challenging questions about a race/'s future/past, and give them the damn chance to answer the question before you swivel or pivot;
5. a wealth of dungeons and raids that vary in length and size, all of which we can choose from instead of being compelled to complete all of them. Let us build up to them with open world events and challenges;
6. meaningful development for a large cast of characters instead of just five who we’re exhausted by already (see: Sylvanas/Anduin), all of which should be driven by COMPLETE stories that we can see A-Z without having to buy five different expansions (this bull of not getting a complete story in a single expansion since Wrath is obnoxious: granted: Legion is an exception);
7. the dignity of being just a regular adventurer and not the savior of the universe. News flash: we’re not. We’re one of millions who clear the same dungeons, the same raids, the same quests. This is not a single player game, stop treating the story like it’s a novel or a single player RPG. We’re in an MMO, and the experience of our characters should align with that.
8. Reduce the amount of crappy systems in game. Naturally occurring content is better than overly mechanized content. Consistency and simplicity are best: take the systems players like best, apply them broadly, and carry them forward. When things are proven to work, and players like them, KEEP THEM. Having to constantly invent new systems drastically increases the likelihood that they will underdeliver (Mission Tables, Azerite Power, etc.), and then the system gets dumped in the end anyways. I’d bet money that if the Artifacts from Legion had been fine tuned and improved, and carried over into BFA, it would have been at least marginally better, and have given the Devs additional time to focus on the other balls they dropped (Warfronts, Islands, and the story);
9. MOST IMPORTANTLY: stop adding VO dialogue that says “this champion” when the text in game says our character name. Just make it all uniform to say champion; holy hell.
Those are just a few ideas from my end.